Academy Pathway to the First Team

[Cobra]

Three centre halves on the bench yesterday,one being Garcia.

The kids did brilliantly to win the FA Cup last week,and the reward for the most impressive......a trip to Southampton to play their u23's (in a 5-2 defeat)

Would it have hurt to put one or two on our bench? Just to acknowledge their achievement?

Doyle, Palmer and Nmecha didn’t even play vs Southampton. Whilst reserve football isn’t the best quality, surely it would have been better for them to play than be sat at home twiddling their thumbs?

 

[FantasyIreland]

Doyle, Palmer and Nmecha didn’t even play vs Southampton. Whilst reserve football isn’t the best quality, surely it would have been better for them to play than be sat at home twiddling their thumbs?

We're on the same page,whether that's right or wrong im not sure,but it just feels bizarre.These kids are talented enough and the first team is crying out for fresh legs and new ideas......yet we see the same old thing week in week out.

Pep then has the neck to start whinging about congestion and a lack of options/subs.

Madness.

 

[Cheeky Txiki]

One of the reason for Bayern's (I know) recent success has been alluding to their proper usage of their entire squad, from fringe players, academy players, 1 season loans, they have managed it pretty well. The game is becoming more physical, more end to end and more dependant on pace and stamina for being able to press then ever before. The press doesn't work when one of the players doesn't do it which we saw with Sterling against Liverpool and Mahrez so many times.

This is where I don't get Pep. Playing KDB, Sterling and Walker in games where they are not required, never giving our youth prospects a start.

I can see Pep changing his whole gameplan (maybe to suit the UCL more), but is this Rodri - Gundogan thing short term? Or is he planning on playing the most boring creatively dead midfield for the entire season? Our team seems to be crying out for creativity, and we might find it in our youth.


After Spuds, we have a good run of easy fixtures before Rags away. Doyle, Palmer, Braaf, Delap have all shown their quality and tenacity when playing for the first team. Are we even going to play them, in even one of the games?

 

[FantasyIreland]

Tonight was the perfect opportunity to get a couple of kids on the pitch for half hour......but no,not a fucking prayer.

Doyle getting 5 mins,pmsl.

We are going to lose a lot of talent.

 

[Shirley]

I'm sure Pep would have brought one or two on tonight if we would have been 3 or 4 up at 60 minutes but at 1-0 he's far too cautious.

 

[ninjamonkey]

Tonight was the perfect opportunity to get a couple of kids on the pitch for half hour......but no,not a fucking prayer.

Doyle getting 5 mins,pmsl.

We are going to lose a lot of talent.

It wasn’t the perfect opportunity. It was 1-0 with qualification yet to be achieved and he had returning players who needed minutes in their legs as a priority. The perfect opportunity is the Marseille game which should be a dead runner now and the latter part of the Porto game assuming that goes to plan.

Every team loses talent, why should we be an exception? Foden is tangible proof to every single academy player that if you have the right attitude and show enough quality day to day, you will get the chance. if they haven’t got the right mentality and expect things to be handed to them then they’re at the wrong club.

 

[FantasyIreland]

It wasn’t the perfect opportunity. It was 1-0 with qualification yet to be achieved and he had returning players who needed minutes in their legs as a priority. The perfect opportunity is the Marseille game which should be a dead runner now and the latter part of the Porto game assuming that goes to plan.

Every team loses talent, why should we be an exception? Foden is tangible proof to every single academy player that if you have the right attitude and show enough quality day to day, you will get the chance. if they haven’t got the right mentality and expect things to be handed to them then they’re at the wrong club.

Foden is the local academy pin up who was always going to be given every opportunity to progress,he's very much an exception rather than a rule.

Along with the quality,i don't believe having the right attitude and temperament is enough at our club.We just don't give youth enough chances.We are crying out for reinforcements and a different approach in most games,but instead we trot out the same old shite with the same old issues.

Dortmund,and even the Rags,are tangible proof that youth players can make the step up when trusted.

 

[domalino]

Foden is the local academy pin up who was always going to be given every opportunity to progress,he's very much an exception rather than a rule.

Along with the quality,i don't believe having the right attitude and temperament is enough at our club.We just don't give youth enough chances.We are crying out for reinforcements and a different approach in most games,but instead we trot out the same old shite with the same old issues.

Dortmund,and even the Rags,are tangible proof that youth players can make the step up when trusted.

And what do Dortmund have to show for it?


You would be complaining the loudest if we brought through youth and won fuck all for 5 years.

This is just a really bizarre hill to die on. The team is not in a great place, we are coming off a bad loss, we have 4 or 5 players to bring back from injury with game time. No one should have expected a bunch of kids to play in this game.

So far this season Delap and Palmer have made their debuts. Doyle will have been ecstatic to made his CL debut yesterday, just like Palmer a few weeks ago. He got 5 minutes which is about how long Foden got against Feyenoord for his CL debut.

Now they will get some game time in the dead rubbers, they will get game time in the FA Cup.

What other clubs were throwing in kids before qualifying? Dortmund weren't, United weren't that's for fucking sure.

They have their path to the first team, its to do what Phil and Garcia did. Train with the first team, play in cups and dead rubbers. Pep could not have been more explicit when he said a few weeks ago that when he arrived at the club he thought he had 1 kid good enough - Foden - and now he has 5 or 6. Their chances will come.

 

[twosips]

I've been really critical of youth integration in the past but I honestly don't think it's as much a stick to beat Pep with anymore really. We have two in our squad that broke through into first team/squad regulars. Foden and Garcia. That's a notable amount. I know one is leaving, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen, and he's only leaving because he wants to return home, not because he wasn't getting games.

We've also clearly got a group of young players that are just on the cusp that Pep trusts. Doyle, Nmecha, Palmer all made Champions League debuts, Delap been involved too in other comps, and would've been in the CL no doubt if he was eligible. I'd like it to be even better, yeah, but I think it has improved and I genuinely think one of those few will break through properly in the same way Garcia and Foden have done. Maybe even two. We all know that a couple of them will be starting the CL dead rubbers as well, and I wouldn't even be surprised if the PL eventually cave in and go for the 5 subs thing too, meaning a few more PL appearances here and there.

Yeah, I wish it was more, but it isn't bad anymore. It's semi-decent.

 

[Centurions]

Foden is the local academy pin up who was always going to be given every opportunity to progress,he's very much an exception rather than a rule.

Along with the quality,i don't believe having the right attitude and temperament is enough at our club.We just don't give youth enough chances.We are crying out for reinforcements and a different approach in most games,but instead we trot out the same old shite with the same old issues.

Dortmund,and even the Rags,are tangible proof that youth players can make the step up when trusted.

Sorry FI but you can't claim the kids don't have an avenue into the 1st team and then claim that Foden (and Garcia) are exceptions.

How many do you want in the team before you can admit it's the norm rather than exceptions?